Tag Archive for Vegetables

A sambal goreng is an Indonesian dish consisting of vegetables or meat cooked in a spicy, red sauce. The one I made consisted of green beans and bean sprouts, but you could use all kinds of other vegetables (cabbage is really nice) or proteins (I especially like this sauce with boiled eggs). By adding more sambal you can make it more spicy, by adding some more tomato and use less sambal it gets more mellow, but keeps it red colour.

Usually, an Indonesian meal consists of rice, at least one saucy dish and one dry dish (one of them with a protein and one of them with vegetables), and usually some sambal and a pickle (atjar) on the side.

Trassi is fermented shrimp paste. In it’s raw state it is incredibly smelly, some people find it so smelly that they refuse to cook with it. But it does give dishes a subtle extra flavour that is really nice, and after you cook it out it doesn’t smell at all. I have found a brand that does give a good flavour, but isn’t too smelly. But in the past I’ve also had a brand that was terribly smelly, the kitchen kept smelling after I cooked with it and I had to wrap the package in a bazillion layers of plastic to keep the smell contained. So it’s worth it to experiment with a few brands.

Blend the onion and garlic to a paste. Heat the oil in a pan, add the puree, sambal, galangal, trasi and a pinch of salt. Cook until fragrant and the onion starts to caramelize.
Cut the tomatoes in cubes and add to the pan. Cook for a few more minutes. Add the bouillon.
Add the ingredient of choice, and cook until it is done.
Finish the sauce with the tamarind paste, goela djawa and santen. Don’t let it boil any more, it might split.

Note: to make this dish vegan, don’t use the trasi and make sure you use a vegan-friendly bouillon. The sauce is really nice with tofu/tempeh, to make a vegan protein dish.

Cook the potatoes.
Prepare the endive, cut in half and remove the bitter and hard heart. Cook, steam or grill until done.
Make a bechamel. Melt the butter in a sauce pan. Add the flour, cook on low heat while stirring for about 1 minute. Gradually add the milk while whisking to prevent lumps. Cook for a few minutes while stirring. Season with salt, pepper and some mace.
Arrange the endive, potatoes and tuffs of ham in a baking dish. Pour over the bechamel. Place under a hot grill until it turns nicely golden (my grill wasn’t really cooperating, so the dish on the photo was rather pale, but still very delicious).

I would say this is a perfect side-dish for the Christmas dinner. It is festive, luxurious and pairs well with all kinds of main dishes. I also like that it is a bit different than usual. Brie, pear and walnuts are a classic combination, and the addition of sprouts works very well.

Brussel Sprouts with Brie, Pear and Walnuts (serves 2, more if you have several vegetable side-dishes)Adapted from Odin

Cook the sprouts until just soft, in about 5 to 10 minutes. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and sauté the onion until soft and caramelized. Add the thyme, sprouts and apple, and warm through. Sprinkle over the walnuts and crumble over the cheese.

An Asian-inspired fish stew, that coincidentally used all of the ingredients that I needed to use up. It has a nice warmth from the spices and fills you up very well. I usually don’t like using frozen fish, because it is always very wet to cook, which makes it impossible to give it a nice crust, and often very dry to eat. But for this dish it’s fine, some extra wetness in the sauce is not a problem and the sauce keeps the flesh moist. Which is nice, because frozen fish is a lot cheaper than fresh fish. Do make sure you use MSC or ASC certified fish.

Heat the coconut oil in a pan. Add the cumin, turmeric, cloves, chilli and leek, and sauté until soft and fragrant.
Add the tomatoes, bouillon, sugar, paprika and brown rice. Cook until the rice is almost cooked, this will take about 30-40 minutes.
Add the fish and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the fish is cooked. Serve with the coriander, lime and/or coconut milk if using.

This is a good dish to use up all kinds of vegetables. It needs to contain cauliflower (gobi), but otherwise the vegetables are up to you. It is not a very authentic curry, but nicely flavoured and doable on weekdays.

Heat the oil, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook on medium heat until translucent.
Meanwhile, put chili, ginger and garlic in a blender and blend into a paste. Add this paste to the translucent onions and sauté until the raw smell has disappeared. Add nigella seeds, mustard seeds, curry powder, garam masala, coriander powder and cumin powder. Fry for about a minute, or until fragrant.
Add a splash of water and mix well, scraping all the bits from the bottom of the pan.
Add the cauliflower and cover with a lid. About halfway done, add the carrot. When both the cauliflower and the carrot are almost cooked, take off the lid, pour in the coconut milk and add the peas. Cook until hot. Add the tamarind paste. Taste and season with salt and some extra tamarind paste if necessary.

This dish is vegan when you use a vegetable oil (not the ghee – which is made from butter) and, if you are using sambal instead of chili, use one that doesn’t contain shrimp paste.

Finally chop the onion and garlic. Use a mortar and pestle or blender to make into a purée, mix with the sambal, trasi and salt.
Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the purée and sauté on medium heat until most of the moisture is evaporated, and the mixture doesn’t smell raw any more.
Add peanut butter, ketjap, goela jawa, tamarind paste and water. Mix well. Leave to bubble for a bit, until the sauce has the desired consistency. Add some more water if you think it’s too thick. Add the santen and mix. Taste and season with salt, goela jawa and tamarind paste if necessary. Serve.

To make this dish vegan, don’t use the trasi (which is fermented shrimp paste), and make sure your sambal doesn’t contain shrimp paste. Also, don’t serve the dish with eggs. Krupuk contains shrimp, use cassava chips as an alternative.

Prepare the endives. Remove outer leafs, cut in half, cut out the hard/bitter heart.
Cook pasta according to the instructions on the packet/by your preferences.
Place the endive in a large pan on medium heat, turn occasionally and leave to cook until soft and slightly caramelized. Season with salt and a splash of lemon juice.
Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in a frying pan in a knob of butter, until golden and cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Mix with the pasta, parsley and gorgonzola. Serve with the endives.

To make this dish truly vegetarian, use a blue cheese that is suitable for vegetarians.

At the end of the growing season, tomato plants almost always have lots of green tomatoes on them, that will not ripen any more. You can lay them in your window sill and hope that they will ripen there, but unless they already have some colour, that doesn’t work very well. Luckily you can make really tasty (sweet, sour, sharp, spicy) chutney with green tomatoes!

Cut the tomatoes in pieces. Core and peel the apples, cut in pieces. Chop the onions.
Put everything together in a large pan (preferably thick-bottomed), bring to the boil and leave simmering, stirring occasionally, until it is reduced and jam-y. When the chutney appears thick enough, make a channel with a wooden spoon across its surface. If it leaves a channel imprinted for a few seconds without being filled by spare vinegar, it is ready. This can take quite a while.
Pour hot into clean, sterilized jars. Close the lids, leave to cool and stick a label on them.
Leave to mature for at least 2 weeks, but 3 months is best to let them mellow, they tend to be to vinegary and harsh otherwise. Can be kept for at least a year in a cool, dark place. Store opened jars in the fridge and use within 4 weeks.

Slice the top from the boule. Hollow out. Keep the breadcrumbs for another dish. Rub the inside of the loaf with the garlic (cut in half).
Coarsely chop the tomatoes together with the oregano.
Line the loaf with the paprika, spread 1/2 of the tomatoes on top, and then the tuna. Cover with a paprika, then a layer of the tomatoes again, then crumble the feta on top. End with another paprika to cover everything.
Ideally, wrap tightly in cling film and let infuse for an hour or so, but you can eat the loaf immediately if you want.